Instead of going through a quarter-life crisis or having a celebratory party, the company held a day of volunteerism Friday to give back to the community.

About 1,200 employees participated in 50 total projects that helped 30 nonprofit groups in Montgomery County and D.C. More than 140 projects were planned Friday for Discovery Communications employees worldwide. The assignments included cleaning parks, working with children, volunteering at animal shelters and fixing buildings.

At one of the bigger project sites on Friday, a team of 65 Discovery Communications employees volunteered at Martha’s Table — a day care center, food station, mobile soup kitchen and thrift store planted in Northwest D.C. With matching gray shirts that read “Discovery Your Impact,” most of the volunteers painted the walls of Martha’s Table, while roughly 25 others prepared food. In between brush strokes, the group received two other visitors: Discovery Communications Founder and Chairman John Hendricks and CEO David Zaslav.

“The office is very collaborative,” said Discovery Communications spokeswoman Tammy Shea, who added that blood drives were set up around their offices for employees who couldn’t leave the headquarters site.

Adria Alpert-Romm, senior executive vice president of human resources for Discovery Communicaions, said the company chose this method of celebrating its silver anniversary because of its focus on people and the planet. She also said that this year was the first of what would be an annual community service event.

The day commemorated a channel debuted by Hendricks on June 17, 1985, 11 years after he graduated with a history degree from the University of Alabama, Huntsville. That day, Discovery Channel had logged 156,000 American viewers as one of the first U.S. cable television networks to focus on educational documentaries. Today, the company has more than 1.5 billion subscribers in more than 180 countries.

The company, which held space in Landover and Bethesda before planting its headquarters in Silver Spring, now boasts roughly 4,400 employees worldwide. Discovery Communications (NASDAQ: DISCA) had hit another milestone in September 2008, when it went public on the Nasdaq Stock Market.

In addition to its trademark Discovery Channel, Discovery Communications also owns Animal Planet, The Learning Channel and Science Channel, among others. Their programming has included Shark Week and the Planet Earth and Life series.